Project: House Pibo
Architects: Open Y Office – OYO Architects
Structural engineer: Jan Versieck
Location: Maldegem, Belgium
Photographs by: Thomas de Bruyne
House Pibo by OYO Architects
The grass covered angled roof is certainly an eye-catching feature of House Pibo which was designed and completed by Open Y Office, or as they call themselves OYO Architects. It is located in the Belgium village of Maldegem.
The architects were given a difficult task which was to create an ecological and compact building that will certainly look uniquely stunning and as you will soon see, they really put a lot of effort into it thus achieving their goal.
But don’t be fooled, House Pibo is everything but an ordinary home, in fact, it is designed with an upside-down layout. The bedrooms are located on the lower floor which is slightly below the level of the road next to the house. This means that all of the living areas are located on the split-level floors which allows them to make the most of the available natural light and views that the large windows offer.
From the architects: “Unlike most single family houses in Belgium, we started with the idea of positioning the living rooms on top of the bedrooms.”
“In a house composed of split-levels it was important to establish cross relations between the spaces and natural lighting conditions throughout.”
Now, more about the roof since it is one of the most unique features of this home. Its slope is intended to continue the landscape around it, but to make it blend in even more, there are several species of flowering plants and grass planted on the roof which change the appearance of the roof throughout the year. On the hand, the facades are sheathed in a rubber membrane which deems the interior waterproof.
From the architects: “The use of wood and warm materials was an inspired decision to create a Scandinavian-like interior ambiance.
The balance of light and material use like stone, wood and white surfaces are the defining elements that bring everything together.”
The entrance takes you directly to the living area from which you can go up to the dining and kitchen area or down to the bedrooms.
It is also worth mentioning that the interior is mostly naturally lighted thanks to the large window that projects from the roof.
There is more to the bedrooms being located in the bottom of the home other than to just let the living areas have natural light on the upper floors. The bedrooms are actually kept cool during the summer by the earth that surrounds the walls and they still get more than enough natural light from ground-level windows.
